NumbersUSA’s Rosemary Jenks: E-Verify Ignored in DACA Negotiations Because ‘Members of Congress Know It Will Work’

File Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images23 Jan 2018

Members of Congress broadly oppose a legislative nationwide E-Verify mandate for employers because “they know it will work,” said NumbersUSA’s Rosemary Jenks, explaining why E-Verify is not being pushed in congressional negotiations for an amnesty deal for recipients of the Obama administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). Jenks further noted that both parties are beholden to special interests supportive of “mass migration.”

Mansour asked Jenks why most Republicans were not supporting a legislative nationwide mandate for E-Verify use by employers. “Why do you think that this isn’t being pushed, then? It seems like a no-brainer. Why is this not being included in all the negotiations?” she said.

“I think [E-Verify] is not being pushed precisely because members of Congress know it will work,” said Jenks. “I think that is exactly the reason it’s not being pushed. Democrats, for sure, don’t want mandatory E-Verify because they know it will discourage illegal immigration, which will discourage the push for the next amnesty. And, let’s face it, the establishment Republicans don’t want it because they know it will be effective and eliminate their cheap labor pools.”

Special interests, including “big business,” “organized religion,” and “ethnic advocacy groups,” subvert popular American will via their funding and political agitation, said Jenks, adding, “It’s about the donors and about the Democrat Party wanting mass immigration. Those are the two factors that rule every immigration debate. It’s always the big business donors, organized religion, the ethnic advocacy groups. All of the money is behind mass immigration, and then, there’s the American people on the other side. That’s the problem we have had. That’s why we haven’t controlled immigration in the last five decades.”

Legislating a national mandate for E-Verify use by employers is more important than construction of a southern border wall, argued Jenks. “In our view, mandatory E-Verify is more important than a wall. So that is the one place where we’re hoping that we can move the administration to saying E-Verify is a must-have.”

Approximately half of “the illegal population” is composed of foreigners who lawfully entered the homeland and overstay their visas, said Jenks. An E-Verify mandate on employers, she added, would “mostly shut down” the lure of employment for illegal aliens.

E-Verify usage by employers would facilitate more effective enforcement of immigration law by allowing federal authorities to target businesses abstaining for its use, said Jenks. “They have a clearer target for enforcement measures.”

Jenks listed the following elements as “must-haves” for any legislative amnesty proposal: 1) limiting the amnesty to the DACA population; 2) ending chain migration; 3) ending the “Diversity Visa Program” lottery; 4) implementation of effective border security and interior enforcement measures; and 5) implementation of a national mandate for employer use of E-Verify.